politics

As many of you know, professionally I dwell in the marketing world with my primary tools being search and social. I live on Google and Facebook beyond the standard 9-5 gig simply because it’s a requirement when you strive to be the best at something that with so many worthy competitors. I’ve even been accused of spending too much time on social media… as if such a thing were even possible.

Voting isn’t exactly the most social thing. In fact, you’re supposed to vote on your own. In today’s world of sharing everything, Facebook is giving people the opportunity to tell the world that they voted.

The top-screen message should appear when you log into Facebook today if you’re in the United States. It is a mild encouragement to let your friends know that you are voting; if you click the button, when they log in they’ll see your profile picture in the box.

It’s a nice little feature that allows people to let others know they voted. It’s unlikely that anyone will decide to vote if they weren’t going to just because they see that all of their friends voted, but it’s still good to see Facebook participating in the government process. Most American’s Facebook news feeds have been flooded with discussions about politics over the last few weeks. While many choose to avoid political discussions altogether (and especially on their social networks) it has still been a challenge to avoid seeing it. Soon, it will all be over.

There’s a big day coming in America. The future of our country rests on this day, and to some it means everything. As Election Day quickly approaches, we need to remember to educate ourselves on the upcoming candidates. Knowing what both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are bringing to the table is absolutely key in deciding who to vote for this November.. Currently, only 43.1% of Americans agree with Obama’s opinion on key issues and over half disapprove of how he is handling the country. But is Romney the candidate to overtake Obama?

According to recent surveys, there are two important issues being taken into consideration by voters: same sex marriage and the creation of jobs. As a country, 45.4% of people support same sex marriage. Mitt Romney opposes gay marriage, bringing his chances of winning to an impressive 51.5%. But, is this the pull he needs to win the election?

There are many opinions about which way our country should lean when it comes to election day. The most important thing you can do is get out and vote. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves – and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” So get out there and let your voice be heard!

Those who follow me are well aware that I’m not a big supported of either Presidential candidate Mitt Romney nor President Barack Obama. With that said, I think it’s important to come to the defense of Romney as he is involved in a minor social media debacle that wasn’t his doing nor the doing of his team.

Since 1994, the media has promoted the internet as a medium of political change among other things. Predictions about the true democratization of information via the Web suggested that the general public would be able to have their voices heard and that ordinary folks would finally be able to make a real difference in a political landscape where normally, the people with the largest campaign funding tend to have the loudest voices.

It’s hard being a conservative in social media. Despite what liberals claim, social media is exceptionally-tilted to the left as the majority of powerful users on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites lean liberal. Social news sites that generate tens of thousands of pageviews to the stories of the community’s choosing are estimated as high as 3-to-1 or higher. On these sites in particular, a strong-enough majority can stifle stories negative to their chosen candidate and promote stories damaging to their opponents.

Mitt Romney learned a hard lesson during the Iowa GOP Candidates Debate on December 10, 2011. We’ve always known that journalists are looking for quotes and sound bites every time major candidates take the stage. Today, social media acts to not only amplify the sound bites, but also to give journalists a way to gauge public sentiment about what is being said.

The scandal has been more than an opportunity for mainstream media sites to use the word “Weiner” in reference to a male body part and not get called out for it. It has been a silent cry for politicians across the country to silence their 140-character communication tool that has helped to open up the government and encourage public interaction.

To those in political office who are turned off by Twitter thanks to Anthony Weiner, please reconsider.

Unless you are sending images of your body parts to women around the web, you shouldn’t fear Twitter. The medium, while sloppy and loaded with noise, is still the fastest and easiest way to communicate with us, the voters and people that you represent. It gives us insights into your thoughts and directions that we normally would have a challenge understanding. It has turned into a venue for the fastest breaking news on the planet.